Here’s our first look at uptown’s newest banking tower

Charlotte’s newest banking tower will extend the city’s skyline with a sheer, 31-story sweep of reflective glass nestled in between Bank of America Stadium and BB&T Ballpark.

Developer Dominion Realty Partners released a rendering of the new building at 401 S. Graham St. – which will also include 215 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments – late Tuesday. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the third quarter of this year, and the building will be ready for occupancy in late 2020.

Pittsburgh-based FNB Corp., the parent company of First National Bank, said last week that it will be the anchor tenant for the new building, to be called FNB Tower-Charlotte.

“We are beyond excited to deliver this project in uptown for FNB and the city of Charlotte,” said Dominion Realty Partners CEO Andy Andrews.

The building offers a stack of different uses.

On the ground floor, there will be separate lobbies for the offices and apartments, along with an FNB bank branch. Above that will be seven levels of parking, with 160,000 square feet of office space on top of the garage. Above that, the rest of the building will be occupied by the luxury apartments.

The amenity level, located on the 17th floor, will include an outdoor sundeck, a pool, gym, club area and entertaining space.

The site is currently a surface parking lot tucked in next to a large parking deck owned by Duke Energy.

Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio is the project’s architect, while LandDesign is the civil engineer. Batson-Cook is the general contractor, and Dominion Realty Partners will manage the building.

FNB is also building a similar tower in Raleigh, also developed by Dominion and expected to be complete in summer 2019. That building, at building at 501 Fayetteville St., will be 22 stories and include about 240 apartments.

Other bank towers are already under construction nearby. Lincoln Harris is building a 33-story tower near Stonewall and Tryon streets, on the former site of The Charlotte Observer, to be anchored by Bank of America. Crescent Communities is building a 26-story tower across the street with Ally Financial as anchor tenant.

And in 2016, Regions Bank said it would be the first tenant in a tower at 615 South College St.

This story was originally published March 14, 2018 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Here’s our first look at uptown’s newest banking tower."